A Thousand Paper Snowflakes
by onyourleft126
Summary: After Jack Frost is killed in an icy accident, Rapunzel finds herself coping with grief in an unorthodox way that gets all of their friends worried. A multi-crossover, modern AU using elements and characters from ROTBFTD (Rise of the Guardians, How to Train Your Dragon, Brave, Frozen and Tangled) but mostly centering on Jackunzel. Basically, all the characters are hipsters. Yeah.
1. Chapter 1

Jack Frost was gone, and with him went his disarming smile, his contagious laugh, his ice-blue eyes. Right after his funeral Rapunzel went into her room and stood with his soft blue hoodie tangled in her hands, staring blankly at their Polaroid photos on her wall.

_I'm never going to see him again_, she thought.

A soft tap on the door indicated that her best friend had known to stick around for longer.

"Punzie? Shall I get ye some hot coco?" Merida leaned against the doorframe, her curly mop of red hair refusing to stay trapped in a ponytail. It took a little longer than usual for Rapunzel to really process what she'd said.

"Oh...yes, please. That would be great," she finally replied.

Merida nodded. "I'll be right back. Stay put, lass." She left the room, pastel Doc Martens clunking down the hall.

Rapunzel looked at the Polaroids again. That was all she had left, really.

***  
The hole was still there in the middle of the frozen lake, but it was quickly freezing over again. Another week, especially in the perpetually snowy town of Burgess, and it would look like nothing had ever happened.

Hazel sighed and put her hands in her pockets. _Nothing is going to be the same again. _

Footsteps crunched lightly behind her. She turned to see Hiccup, her brother's best friend, stop at the edge of the lake as well.

"Didn't wanna go home, huh?" he said.

Hazel sighed. "No, I didn't feel like it." Hiccup just nodded.

Hazel but her lip. "I keep on thinking like it was my fault. If I hadn't insisted on skating...maybe Jack wouldn't be-"

"Hazel." Hiccup put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't say that."

"You're right," she said numbly. "I'm sorry. You're right."

They continued to look at the lake in silence.

"Now what do we do?" Hazel said.

Hiccup shrugged wearily. "We go on living, I guess."

***  
"Funerals always make me cold," said Elsa as she and her sister entered the house through the back door.

"But you never get cold," Anna pointed out. Elsa shrugged. "Funerals are different."

Anna knew what she meant. Five years ago, their parents had died on a cruise accident in the Caribbean. The sisters had had to move to Burgess to live with their uncle, who ran a general store attached to the house.

From day one, Jack Frost had been their first and closest friend, a brother to two orphaned sisters. His death left a new hole in Anna that hurt in a different way than the hole her parents had left behind.

The sound of a door shutting reached her ears. Anna looked up, realizing she was alone in the living room. A sudden panic overtook her. No, not again, please!

"Elsa!" She ran to the door. This is exactly what Elsa had done right after their mom and dad died. And Anna had never felt more useless and alone. "Please don't shut me out again. Please..."

Back then it had taken several weeks for Elsa to emerge from her room. This time, the door opened.

With a strangled sob, Anna hugged her sister tight, and the two of them cried together in the doorway.

***  
The ceiling greeted Rapunzel as she awoke, one crack running through it. Like a fracture on ice—

She shut her eyes tight. _Don't think about that. _

She pushed herself out of bed and went into the dining room, as per her usual routine when she'd wake up at 6:30 am sharp (even on a weekend like today) to make breakfast for her parents. To her surprise, her mother was already up and making pancakes.

"Mom?" Rapunzel said blearily.

"Hello, dear," her mother said with a smile.

"I usually get breakfast. Don't I?"

"Well...you woke up late today."

Rapunzel glanced at the clock. 8:15! "Oh shit."

"Rapunzel!" admonished her mom. "It's okay. Really, it is. Sit down and don't worry about it; I'll handle breakfast. In fact..." She looked at her daughter worriedly. "I think you shouldn't be doing too much right now. You've been through a lot lately."

_Just because my boyfriend died doesn't make me a handicap case._ "But I can't just sit here and not do anything. I still have plenty of projects lined up..."

Twelve noon came and went, and Rapunzel had not touched a single of her projects. She was supposed to finish knitting a scarf for Merida, glaze an oil painting and put some handmade pots into the kiln, but none of that happened. Rapunzel lay in bed beneath a string of soft yellow lights, knowing she was in a dreaded artists' funk- and knowing that it was because she was still grieving for Jack.

Her eye fell on the pile of books on her bedside table. _Maybe this will take my mind off things..._

She picked up a battered copy of Ender's Game and was surprised when a paper snowflake fell out between the pages and landed in her lap.

_Jack. _


	2. Chapter 2

_Horizontal lines - indicate beginning/end of a flashback; asterisks *** indicate switching scenes between current events._

* * *

"When you fold that corner in, you can see this part folding in as well-"

"What?"

"Follow the crease, Jack."

"Crease? What crease?"

"There should be a crease there! Didn't you crease it in step 3?"

"The fuck?"

"Jack!" Rapunzel snatched the piece of paper away from him, examining it. "You didn't crease it! Now it's all messed up!"

"Fuck it," Jack said recklessly, grabbing the paper again and dropping it. "I can't do it, Punzie, it's just too hard and I'm an idiot. Origami sucks."

"It does NOT," Rapunzel said, laughing. "It's an ancient Japanese art form that explores the possibilities one can make from a single piece of paper. The crane is basic!"

"Why do we have to do this on our first date? Can't we just, like, make out?" He leaned in and tried to kiss her. She pushed him away, giggling.

"If you wanna get artsy, Sunshine, then watch this." Every one of Jack's female best friends was 'princess' to him, but since he and Rapunzel started dating, she'd been his Sunshine. His only sunshine. He pulled a Swiss knife out of his front hoodie pocket and grabbed a new sheet of paper. Rapunzel peered at him, curiously watching as he folded the paper just so and started cutting jagged holes all over it.

"What the hell is that?" Rapunzel said. Jack shushed her. Finally he opened the paper, revealing its perfect snowflake shape.

"See?" He said, grinning. "I'm pretty artsy too."

"It's wonderful!" Rapunzel said. "Show me how to do that, Jack..."

She was an artist, and her artist's mind caught on to the technique easily. They held their paper snowflakes up against the sunlight, as a flock of geese flapped away in the distance.

"Is this gonna be our thing?" Jack said. "Are we gonna be the weird couple that makes paper snowflakes now?"

"People in town are already judging us for our secondhand clothes, so why not?" Rapunzel said. "You know, the Japanese have this belief that finishing one thousand paper cranes grants the maker a long, prosperous life. It's called Senbazuru."

"Prosperous as in, like, money?" Jack gave her a sideways look. "Sounds neat."

"But you refuse to learn origami," Rapunzel teased. "If you won't even finish one little crane how do you expect to make a thousand?"

"We could make one thousand snowflakes instead," Jack said. "Seriously. We could! It'll be our thing. Hiccup and Merida's thing is fishing during off-season-"

"It's called 'fishing before it's cool'," Rapunzel corrected.

"Then our thing is making snowflakes all year round! Senbazuru with a twist. Because convention isn't in our vocabulary."

Rapunzel laughed. "You really want to do that?"

"Heck, yeah!"

She smiled. "Okay. One thousand paper snowflakes for a long and prosperous relationship."

"D'you have to do that here?" Merida said, as Jack and Rapunzel shed white paper cuttings all over their table at the Snuggly Duckling. "How do you even see in this light?"

The group's favorite hangout place was a modest coffee shop during daytime, but when night fell it became a dark bar that offered the latest in indie performances- usually by locals like Rapunzel, Jack and their gang.

"It's become a habit," Jack said. "How many have we got in your box, Punzie?"

"Must have over a hundred fifty in the past month," she said. Onstage, Anna and Elsa duetted a cover of All You Need is Love while their friend Olaf accompanied them on harmonica.

"And what are you guys going to do with a thousand snowflakes when you finish?" Hiccup said dryly. On his shoulder was Toothless, his sleek black cat- Hiccup was the only patron of the bar allowed to bring his animal inside.

Jack shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, eh?"

The snowflakes found their way into their pockets, random books they were reading, folded into their wallets, tucked into the case of Rapunzel's guitar. At one point or another they lost track and ended up doing it habitually, a normal thing they'd do together. Then finals week threw everyone for a loop, and the snowflakes lay forgotten where they were, the project coming to a halt without either of them really deciding to take a break.

Afterward, Jack and Rapunzel sort of just stopped making snowflakes; both thinking maybe they should get to it again sometime, but more than anything they were both just caught up with life as it was going on- performing at the Snuggly, filling college application forms, biking all over town on rusty fixed-gear bicycles.

Then Jack went ice skating with his sister and one misplaced step sent everything crashing down into darkness.

Long and prosperous relationship, my ass.

Rapunzel got out of bed and peered under her desk. It was still there; the box of snowflakes, slightly dusty, but intact. Three hundred and twenty-five, as scribbled on the inside wall of the box. They never even got close to a thousand.

Rapunzel hated starting something and never finishing it.

_I'll finish this one for you, Jack. Whatever it takes. _

*******  
Merida curled her fingers around Hiccup's hand as they both stared at the moon.

"Jack's probably up there laughing his arse off at us," she said.

Hiccup snorted. "I don't doubt it." He sighed. "God, I can only wonder how Punzie must feel."

Merida frowned. "Poor lass. And worse still is how people look at her now."

"What do you mean?"

"Nobody sees Rapunzel for who she is," she explained. "She used to be the blonde chick who did street art all over the park. Now she's just the dead boy's girlfriend. Hazel, too- now she's the little girl whose brother drowned. And it's unfair," Merida said, her voice reaching a strangled note. "It's just unfair. Why are we defined by the things we lose and the shit that fate throws at us?"

"I thought you said- that we make our own fate," Hiccup said.

"Not all the time," Merida said, tears in her big blue eyes. "Not all the time, Hic."

He folded her in his arms and ran his fingers through her red hair. Hell, he'd been dating this girl for six months, but he still couldn't help but think Jack would have a sure success of cheering her up.

*******  
Hazel was angry.

She'd blown up at her mother when she couldn't find Jack's favorite blue hoodie among his things, thinking that maybe their mom had given it away. She had- to Rapunzel. That reassured Hazel, but she was already mad, so she decided to stay mad all the way out of her room and into the street, all the way down to Rapunzel's place.

Maybe a chat with her favorite blonde would help her chill. Since she and Jack had started dating, Rapunzel had become something of an older sister to her. She arrived at Rapunzel's house and saw her mom and dad in the living room, but no Punzie. Hazel knocked on the door.

"Good evening, Hazel," said Rapunzel's mother.

"Hi," was all Hazel could say. "I haven't seen Punzie in a week. Can I come in?"

When Hazel entered Rapunzel's room, she found the blonde on the floor, on her knees, bent over a piece of folded paper. Paper cuttings littered the floor, flowed out of two wastebaskets, and on a long string of twine were strung countless paper snowflakes, all of different shapes and sizes.

Hazel gaped. "Punzie..."

Rapunzel looked up. "Oh- hi, Hazel."

"Did you make all of these?"

Rapunzel nodded. "I guess I got carried away."

She looked around. "I remember...you and Jack went through a snowflakes phase. He was crazy about them."

"Yes," Rapunzel said. "We always said we'd finish a thousand snowflakes together." She paused. "I'm doing it now."

Hazel knelt down next to her. "They're beautiful."

Rapunzel smiled. "Thank you." She bent her head, continuing to cut away at another snowflake.

Hazel tried to speak again. "Do you have Jack's hoodie?"

"Yes." Rapunzel nodded to where it was hanging on a bedpost. "It's there. Would you like it back?"

Hazel shook her head with a sigh. "No, just making sure my mom really gave it to you, and didn't throw it away. She hates second-hand things."

The blonde only nodded.

"Rapunzel," said Hazel, "you should get out of the house. We haven't seen you around town in three days."

Now Rapunzel looked at her and her eyes had an odd, distant gaze. "I thought about that. But I'm just not ready." She opened the latest snowflake and watched the pattern unfold with a blank stare.

"But you have to stop making so many snowflakes at some point," Hazel said desperately.

"I'll stop when I hit a thousand." Rapunzel reached for another sheet of paper and folded it just so, then bent her head again. _Snip, snip._ She looked up at Hazel for a moment."Thanks for dropping by."

Hazel walked back home, by herself, without Jack's hoodie. She couldn't stop thinking about how zoned out Rapunzel looked, all the paper snowflakes in her room, the endless snip, snip of scissors. It was like something had broken in her—but, being Rapunzel, she lost herself in doing something creative, focusing on one paper snowflake after another.

_You know, she shouldn't have to go through this alone... _

She encountered Hiccup and Merida on their way home. Merida seemed to be in tears; Hiccup was holding her close to his chest.

"Haze," he said, surprised. "What the hell are you doing out here so late? It's fucking freezing." God, if anything happened to his best friend's little sister, Hiccup would lose his goddamn mind.

"Hiccup, chill," said Hazel. "I just went to see Rapunzel."

Merida blinked. "You went to see Rapunzel? How is she?"

Hazel shrugged. "Not that great. I think you guys should go and see her." She frowned. "In fact, I think we should all go and see her."


	3. Chapter 3

Rapunzel was immersed in cutting pieces out of her latest snowflake when the door creaked open and a presence let itself in and sat in front of her.

"Punz?"

She looked up into Hiccup's steady brown eyes, blinking out from behind his oversized glasses. It was a moment before she recognized who it was.

"Hi, Hiccup."

"So...how are you?" he said anxiously.

"I'm okay," was all she said, and returned to her snowflake. A sinking feeling started in Hiccup's gut. _God, she is so far gone. _

The door opened again, and Anna, Elsa and Merida peered their faces in. Anna grinned awkwardly. "Can we come in?"

Hiccup sighed with relief, and Rapunzel looked up, surprised. "Where did you guys come from?"

"From outside!" said Merida. "Where you should be."

"We brought you tea," Elsa said helpfully, passing a can of tea leaves to Rapunzel. She hugged it to her chest, confused.

"What are you doing here?" she said.

"We didn't want you to be alone," Merida said. "If you're not going to come out, we thought, Heck, might as well bring the party to you."

"These are beautiful, Rapunzel," Anna said, examining the paper snowflakes. She immediately sat down next to her. "Show me how to make one. Please?"

Elsa and Merida smiled at each other knowingly. _Let Anna work her magic._

"Me too," Hiccup said, scooting closer to them. "How do you do it?"

Rapunzel looked from one friend to the other. "Um, okay." She tucked a blonde strand out of her face. "First you, uh, fold this corner down..."

When Hazel opened the door to Rapunzel's room later on, she found her surrounded by the other teenagers, all making paper snowflakes—and laughing. Really, truly laughing, just like they did before the accident that had killed Jack. The color was coming back to Rapunzel's cheeks and her green eyes were now bright with fun.

"Hey, guys," Hazel said.

"Hi, Hazel!" Rapunzel's voice was back to its usual cheerful note—perhaps softer and more subdued than before, but cheerful all the same. It made Hazel smile.

Anna held up a pair of scissors. "Do you wanna make a snowflake?"

_I ask her friends to get her to come outside and this is what they end up doing? _Sometimes Hazel didn't understand her brother and his offbeat, flower-crown-wearing, indie-music-playing, mostly-female buddies. But she just shrugged. "Okay." She sat down near Elsa. "So are you guys excited for the new cafe opening on the other side of the park?"

"Ooh, yes," said Anna. "We better make it our spot before it gets overrun by tourists."

"And let's hope they know what a flat white actually is," Hiccup said.

Rapunzel blinked. "There's going to be a new cafe?"

Merida chuckled. "A lot can happen in three days if you don't keep a pulse on the energy, lass." She sobered, touching her friend's shoulder. "Do you think maybe you're ready to go out now?"

Rapunzel frowned. "I don't know. Too much of this town reminds me of Jack. And I don't like how people look at me now. I don't want to be treated any different because my boyfriend is gone."

"Hey," said Elsa, taking Rapunzel's hand. "Listen, Punzie. Don't let what other people think stop you from living your life. Jack may be dead, but guess what, sweetie?" Her blue eyes locked with Rapunzel's green ones. "You're still alive. So when you're ready, get out there and own it."

Rapunzel hugged the older girl gratefully. "Thank you."

"Of course," smiled Elsa. "We're here for you. I know you're processing grief and all that, but you don't need to do it alone. Really." She tucked a lock of hair behind Rapunzel's ear, ever the big sister. "And I know because I did that when my parents died. It took a while for me to bounce back."

"So what helped?" Rapunzel said, like a child asking for more of a bedtime story.

Elsa smiled again. "Jack did. And I was better than ever."

Rapunzel looked around. "I'm not quite sure. I mean...the snowflakes, that was always something Jack and I wanted to finish together. I figured I'd finish making a thousand snowflakes and then, you know, move on like everyone else." She frowned. "Is that healthy?"

"Not if you plan to stay in here until you hit your goal," Hiccup said impatiently. "Screw it, Punzie, Elsa's right. You don't have to do this alone." He grabbed another sheet of paper. "We're gonna help you."

"You will?" Rapunzel said, eyes wide.

"A thousand snowflakes," said Anna, passing Hiccup a pair of scissors, "or bust."

*******  
They finished the thousand paper snowflakes one week later. And true to her word, Rapunzel came out of her room- through the window, no less. Going to school and around town still carried some pain, as nearly every street corner and park bench reminded her of Jack. But every day she found it easier and easier, to look past the pitying gazes people gave her and put one foot in front of the other.

A couple of weeks later, Rapunzel cut her hair herself. She sheared off the shiny blonde and emerged with a messy, carefree bob which she decided to dye brown, just for the shits n' giggles.

"Well, how do I look?"

"Beautiful!" Anna said, just as Merida chortled '"Just like Hiccup...almost."

Hiccup made a sarcastic face. "Great, now I gotta change my look before it gets too mainstream."

Three months later, on what would have been Jack's nineteenth birthday, they hung the paper snowflakes all over town- on the swings in the park, from lamp-posts on the street, on the mailbox outside his house, the windows of his favorite thrift shop, the old oak tree by the lake, and finally on the walls of the Snuggly Duckling. The proprietor promised them he would never take them off.

Joined by her friends, Rapunzel walked out of the Snuggly Duckling, and into the cool spring air. They paused for a moment by the lake; the lake that had changed everything.

"Oaken says town council's working out a plan for safer skating regulations," Anna said.

Hazel nodded. "That's going to save a lot of lives."

The lake was now completely thawed out, surface glossy and dark. One by one the others walked away, continuing down the road.

Rapunzel stayed, and Hiccup stayed with her. 

"That wasn't bad for a first kiss."

"No, absolutely not."

His lips met hers again, under the string of yellow lights that adorned the eaves of the Snuggly Duckling, as not too far away Hiccup passed a cigarette around to Merida, Anna and Olaf. Rapunzel's fingers curled on Jack's shoulders, digging into the soft blue fabric, as he tangled his fingers in her long yellow hair. He tasted like whiskey. They both did.

"Jack?!"

The pair broke away as Elsa stood in the doorway, surprised. They chuckled, embarrassed.

"What, Sis, surprised that your little bro actually got some action?" Jack teased.

Elsa shook her head. "Oh no. Just wondering where you went. By all means...carry on." But Rapunzel could see her smiling.

Soft white flakes began to fall from the sky, landing on their eyelashes.

"It's starting to snow," Jack said.

"Yeah," said Rapunzel, as she leaned in to kiss him again.

"I'm never going to not miss him," Rapunzel said.

"I know," said Hiccup. "Me, too." They gazed out over the lake for a few more seconds. The wind scattered a pile of fallen leaves, like a playful child, and broke the clouds overhead to smoky wisps.

Rapunzel adjusted her hat. "Okay," she said at last, "Let's go."


	4. Epilogue

A brisk wind blew up as Elsa walked to the bus station. It was a new beginning in more ways than one- today Elsa would begin her new job downtown. She was excited, and a little scared, but somehow fear wasn't quite as big a problem as it was before.

She knew Jack would be proud of her.

The bus station was empty except for a young boy, maybe a couple of years older than Hazel, and with a mop of jet-black hair that stuck up all over the place. Elsa could easily see he was freezing, unused to Burgess' cold temperatures. After a few minutes of standing there she pulled off her scarf and offered it to him.

"Here, take this," she said. "I don't need it."

He stared at her for a minute before taking the scarf. "Thanks. Thank you so much."

Elsa regarded him interestedly. "You know, Burgess is a small town, and I don't think I've seen you around before. Did you just move here?"

The boy nodded. "A couple days ago. With my aunt."

Well...what would Jack do?

"Then welcome to Burgess," smiled Elsa. She shook his hand. "I'm Elsa Andersen."

The boy smiled, showing a distinct gap between his teeth. "Hiro. Hiro Hamada."


End file.
